Turning Point Community Church

September 16, 2007

My favorite worship experience so far was definitely at Turning Point. For some reason I really connected with God that morning and was able to turn loose of my apprehension about being in a new place and really worship. I don't know if it was the music, the songs or just my state of being that morning, but it was really good.

If were forced to describe this church with one adjective it would be "professional." I don't mean that in a bad way - I mean you could just really tell that the church was about excellence in ministry and facilities. When we drove in the parking lot, an attendant directed to a parking spot. That was nice in a way, but we had read the children's department was on the far side of the building and that was really where we wanted to park. Oh well - no big deal. The building is located out on South Quaker near the Vintage Township building edition. It's not a vintage building by any stretch of the imagination - its very new and modern looking, not much like a church building. We were greeted at the door by a very friendly lady who told us exactly where to go for Avery's department. Once in the door, we were surprised to be at the brink of a full fledged coffee shop! It smelled sooo good and is what my dream of what church ought to smell like. I think that just comes from my college days of spending lots of time in the coffee shops studying and talking about spritiual things - it feels and smells like a place where spiritual things ought to happen. The cool thing about the whole concept is two-fold. First, they open an hour before the first "event" at church so you can meet friends there for breakfast and have good community time. This is a really good idea, since most everyone who attends such a church would be at Daybreak or Starbucks before church anyway. Second, all the money from the coffee sales supports their mission work! I thought this was just brilliant and such a unique way to work around the world. It really fits with folks from my generation - another one of those things that makes Turning Point "professional."

On the way to Avery's class, we noticed lots of people visiting and having good conversation. No one had a conversation with us, however, which I pretty much expected for a church like this. It's new and trendy and no one really knows who is new and who isn't. There was a "concierge" desk, we noticed, but didn't ask for directions since we knew where to go. I should have stopped to pick up a coffee mug - we could have quite a collection by now. I guess that is the "thing" to do these days for visitors. As we approached the kids area, we noticed a huge aquarium built into the wall. Yes, built into the wall. You could see inside the kids classroom on the other side of it. It was really cool and Avery loved it. Very professional. And expensive, I'm sure. We got all set up at the kid's section. It's amazing how organized and thorough most of the churches we've visited have been. They are very security conscious, which is a new thing for us. All the kids get name tags on their backs with a number and you get a card with that number which has to be redeemed in order to get your kid back. They take a list of names of people authorized to pickup your child as well and parents are not allowed into the classroom area - it's all contained behind a receiving area where you do the registration stuff. The ladies were very friendly and Avery happily trotted off to her class.

We ventured off to find the sanctuary for the worship service. We were handed a really professional full color worship guide as we came in. (In which we were delighted to read about a special contribution to be taken for the Children's Home of Lubbock!) The sanctuary was a big square room but configured as a diamond so the stage took up one corner.
This is a picture of it, but the picture looks a little different than I remember it. Anyway, there were lots of empty chairs so we found a good seat kind o fin the middle. The worship team was up there on stage and they have one screen with the words of the song where you can easily follow along. As I mentioned before, the worship time was very good and uplifting. The musicians were talented and the worship leader had a good way of keeping us focused on God. I did notice something different here - the drums were not behind a clear plexiglass wall like they have been at every other church we've visited. I don't know what the deal with the wall is - if you know, please enlighten me. I guess it has something to do with sound quality.

At some point during the service the offering bags were passed while a lady gave us her solo ministry in song. The whole service was pretty tame - some hands raised and stuff like that, but nothing off the wall. Most people just seemed to be into their worship. This Sunday there happened to be a guest speaker. I'm really glad we attended because he was one of the best speakers I've ever heard. You know (I think) that I'm not very big on preaching. This guy, however, was different. He really knew how to hold our attention and keep us with him. From telling stories, to walking into (and sitting down with) the audience, to drawing on an easel on stage - I didn't yawn once, and that is really unusual. His name is Warren Martin and he talked about facing our future and engaging God as a big deal in that future. You can listen to the podcast here if you so desire http://www.myturningpoints.com/podcast/view/sermons .

After the service was over, we wandered back through the crowd to get Avery. She had a wonderful time and they were very organized about the whole deal. She had hand-outs to take home and the lady gave us a worksheet of things to do to follow up on the lessons at home through out the week. She took time to go over that with us made sure we had all Avery's things. Then we made our way through the crowd again, stopped to peek at the menu of the coffeeshop and walked out the door without a single person talking to us. I guess that is what you expect at a professional church. I'm sure that going through the new members class and all that would get you connected, but it just seemed like everyone was wrapped up in their own little world. I think that is true with most any big church, however - even ones we've been members of! They have a vibrant small group ministry and lots going on - there would definitely be things to be involved in here. But, looking around, I'm not sure its the environment we want to be in. While the professionalism is VERY attractive to me, because it shows the leadership cares about how things are put together and perceived, its also a bit off putting. There is more to church than getting all the "things" right - it's about a Christian community enjoying life together and while it was obvious most folks there were doing just that, we were invited (or even noticed) to join in that. Maybe that's too much to expect on a first visit, but that's how it felt.

Stay tuned for the next installment of "Church Search." Next time on our journey into the past, we visit Live Oak Community Church.